


tell it to the turtles

by watergator



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Crossover, Gen, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-08-30 14:26:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8536642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: A TMNT Alternative Universe - the four human brothers struggle in the new world where danger lurks around every corner, whether it be the dead, or even the living. A TMNT and TWD universe Crossover(if you understand the title reference, ily)





	1. Chapter 1

He’s lost track of the days. Not that it mattered now, just run, retrieve and survive. The air is thick with dust and he can’t help but feel like he’s breathing in the ghosts of what was once the city; the buildings, the people, the civilisation.  
But as he moves swiftly, just like Leo told him before, he sees the Pharmacy, half destroyed and Donnie swallows thickly, eyes scanning the area, before he makes quick steps towards it.  
It’s Mikey, again – he’s sick more days than he’s not, and every time Donnie makes a supply run out here, it’s not the Walkers or the dead that scare him, it’s what he’s out here for that scares him. 

He enters the small store, and he can never help the shaking in his hands as he holds up the gun, fingers dangerously on the trigger, ready to survive.  
But its empty, and the tall teen can breathe, letting out an anxious puff of air, before quickly moving on.  
He slips the backpack of his shoulders, and his heart is in his throat as he searches the bare shelves.  
Leo told him to get all that he could get – to fill the backpack to the brim, as much as he could carry without slowing him down and making a meal out of himself, but Donnie could tell now, that that wouldn’t be a worry, since there was next to nothing here.  
He felt a rock in his chest as he continued searching, but there was only a small handful of things he could find. 

The brown eyed teenager, sagged, until a shelf that had collapsed onto the floor caught his eye, and it was the familiar blue wrapper that make him smile triumphantly, as he reached down for the handful of candy bars, until a bony hand wrapped around his wrist, causing him to fall back, still attached to the half dead corpse that he hadn’t seen under the shelves.  
His heart beat in his chest as he felt sick as he couldn’t get away, a scrambling mess on the floor as panic set in, tears springing to his eyes, and as the Walker pulled him in, he cried out, desperately trying to pull his body away, and as it was just inches away from his own skin, moments away from death, a gunshot rang in his ears and he fell still, as the grip in his wrist loosened, causing him to fall onto his back, and his heart went back to its somewhat normal pace.  
He quickly stood up on shaky legs, hardly being able to stand – but when he was looking back into familiar leaf green eyes, it was like his body melted into a pathetic puddle of relief.

“You dropped your gun by the way” Raph smirked, before tossing it to Donatello, who quickly shoved it back into his pocket.

“You didn’t need to follow me” He replied sourly, bending down for the candy bars that almost killed him, making sure not to touch the dead body that was now slumped over, completely lifeless. 

“I’m pretty sure I did” Raphael rolled his eyes, picking up the backpack, giving it a quick inspection.

“There’s not much here,” Donnie waved a hand at the backpack as Raph looked sullen, “Sorry to disappoint” He said in an almost whisper. 

The walk home was silent, trudging through abandoned cars, Raph insisted on checking every single one, and Donnie couldn’t help but feel sorry for his brother – he’d never seen his so desperate, gripping onto the last threads of survival they had.

Their camp was moderately safe, it wasn’t some big brick house with eclectic fencing and fifty thousand guns and knives to keep them safe, but it was enough.

An old train station, with a double mattress, Donnie wondered if it was worth it, since none of them slept anymore anyway – until Mikey got sick.  
He’d been sleeping late in the day, only managing to stay away for a mere hour or two, before sleeping again.  
None of them were doctors, but Donnie had guessed it was some sort of flu or infection, and without the correct mediation, he wasn’t sure what his little brothers future looked like.

He had no idea what anyone’s future looked like, he sure as hell didn’t think it looked like this, a post-apocalyptic world with the living dead walking around the streets of New York, eating and ripping apart anything with a heartbeat.

But now Mikey lay on the mattress, curly thick blonde hair stuck to his face with sweat and his eyes were pinched shut.  
Leo sat on the edge, hand over his, his face plastered with worry.

“Hey” Donnie spoke up in a soft voice, and Leo looked round, the lines in his face didn’t go away, but he looked the tiniest bit better knowing that his brothers had made it back alive.

“Run into any trouble?” Leo asked quickly, standing up.

Donnie looked over to Raph who was on the other side of the room, messing with some guns, and he decided to give Leo just a little less heart ache,

“Uh, no, didn’t see a soul” He smiled, and Leo warmly smiled back. “Did hit gold though” Donnie grinned, ear to ear, and dug into his backpack, before pulling out handfuls of candy bars.

He watched Leo’s face crumple into something sad, before being pulled into a weak hug, to which Donnie translated as a silent thankyou  
Leo was tired, and he hated that. Leo wanted to go home, and rest, but instead he had three younger brothers to take care of in a new hell that was their world. But maybe these few candy bars were a beginning for a new hope for the four brothers.

Just maybe.


	2. Chapter 2

Two weeks had passed, and Mikey had somehow, by miracle made small, steady process. Donnie wasn’t sure if it was the medication or just pure luck – because either way, they were running out of both.  
Raph had been sent out for more supplies, it was supposed to be just in and out, but he’d been gone more than two days, and the food they’d stored was dwindling, even with one member of the team missing, Mikey had skipped meals from when he was sick, and Leo was adamant about him rebuilding his appetite, but it was hard to so much as look at food with no word or sign of Raphael. 

Mikey picked at the piece of bread, crumbs scattering across his lap and he scrunched up his nose in protest, “We shouldn’t be here, eating bread Leo” He pleaded, his voice was still raw and husky from the days of sleep, and his eyes were tired and gleaming with tears – it was clear how much his heart ached for his brother back, the not knowing if he was dead or alive. Or worse. 

Leo sighed, the last few days really making a toll on the oldest, his heart heavy with a fresh uncertain grief, and Donnie wondered if Leo had some sort of feeling, like a mother would, to know what had happened to their brother.

They hadn’t been very close before, always arguing and fighting, and Raph would always make some comment about how he longed to leave home and get away from the disaster that was his family, but a lot of the time, the only thing stopping him from actually leaving was the youngest, Mikey, and he’d mentioned that before, in a fit of rage or even in floods of tears.  
But now things were different, before Raph wanted to leave his tiny family and live in the big wide world, but now there was nothing left of the world, and he only had his family. 

But now they were the ones without him.

Hours rolled by and a few Walkers managed to stumble across their camp, nothing they couldn’t handle, a few slow, rotted ones, and even a crawler, but the day seemed to drag on, and as night fell, blanketing their part of the world in a dark cold blanket, another night without Raph, they went another day without eating. 

It was the next morning when everything had changed. Donnie awoke early, he always had done, but these days it was like his body was on high alert, and he spent most his nights worrying rather than actually sleeping, and as for Leo, Donnie could tell he hadn’t been sleeping at all.

It only took about ten seconds to notice that Mikey had gone missing.

Moth shredded blankets were flown across the room and Leo was moving with the force of a hurricane, strong and ferocious. Something Donnie had only seen in dire situations of panic; and this was one of these times.

They knew that it was possible enough for a walker to slip in whilst they were sleeping and kill without as much as making a sound, making their brother into a meal silently, taking him as one of their own. But as horrible as that sounded, Donatello swallowed the idea down thickly, and wished pathetically that it was something small, stupid and solvable.

But the chances were that Michelangelo had gone out boldly in the night in a desperate search of his big brother. 

Before Donnie could even comprehend what was happening, Leo was forcing a water bottle into his hands, and telling him to hurry up, shoving a small backpack into his chest, eyes swimming with worry as Donnie looked up, and only really taking in the reality once he’d made the first few steps out of the comfort of their safe camp and out on a hunt and rescue mission for two possibly dead brothers.

It was still early and Donnie knew how precious daylight was, and he was counting on every second of it if it meant getting his brothers back. 

He watched Leo walk up ahead of him, taking long strides, head moving in every possible direction for so much of a glimmer of them.

“Donnie c’mon, stay close” He called out, and Donnie did so, trotting up to his older brother, closing the gap before looking around cautiously.

It wasn’t a lie that he was afraid to be on his own, out here. He agreed to do supply runs, but even though he knew that Raph was most of the time acting as his shadow, the secret back up that he never asked for, but somehow always had. And he secretly thanked Raph for constantly having his back, because even though he would shrug it off like he had done in the Pharmacy those few weeks ago, he was still thankful for it. 

And he was thankful when in the distance, after about an hour or two of walking, making small talk with Leo every so often, when he saw two figures in the distance. And his heart leapt into his chest as the sun made them into mere silhouettes, but that hope was sinking, and it sunk fast, when he realised that it wasn’t who he hoped it was. 

Instead it was a tall boy and a girl, both who had their guns raised, to which Leo reacted, mirroring their action, before Donnie could register, and quickly whipping out his own gun, holding it up as the two pairs made cautious steps towards one another, and when Donnie was shoulder to shoulder to his brother, he could see his nostrils flare and chest puff out, like a mother lion, protective and fierce. 

The boy and the girl looked no older than Donnie was, and he had to wonder if maybe he’d seen then at school before, maybe just in the hallways. But his thoughts were interrupted when Leo spoke out, voice more steady than Donnie could tell his breathing was. 

“Lower your gun” The boy bit his tongue, and the girl, who had red hair, messily pushed up into a ponytail looked at her friend for reassurance.

“We don’t want no trouble” He replied back, gun not going back down, and Donnie could tell that his hands were shaking a little now. 

“Neither do we” Leo said solidly, and Donnie looked at the girl and the boy as they nodded, and then back to Leo, who nodded back.

Soon all guns were back in their holders, and Leo and Donnie moved swiftly towards them.  
“We’re looking for someone – two people, actually” Leo asked desperately.

But the boy just huffed out an airy laugh,  
“Aint everybody?”

Leo swallowed down his pride, and continued,  
“We’re looking for our brothers, one, Raph, big guy with curly brown hair, he went missing about, two, three days ago?” 

Donnie winced at how unsure and uncertain his brother sounded, but he continued anyway,  
“And Mikey, he’s uh, he’s about four foot eight, crazy blonde hair, blue eyes?” Leo’s eyes flickered before the two.

“We seen ‘em” The boy shifted his weight onto one leg, crossing his arms, watching the relief pool onto Leo’s face like a broken dam. 

And for a second Donnie let his body sag, releasing the tensing muscles in his body.

The boys lips curved up into a smile, and the grip on his gun became tight as he smirked, and the click of the safety being released echoed in his ears as loud as the blood was pumping through his body, 

“But its gonna cost ya”


	3. Chapter 3

Casey Jones was a smug shit. And everyone with a functioning brain would agree, hell, even the ones without working brains could figure that out.

He hadn’t been serious of course, he laughed out a bitter laugh, short and loud when he saw Leo’s face drop, waving his hands in the eyes and rolling his eyes.

The girl next to him however, was not so smug and it looked like she had put up with enough of his bullshit to block it out, to ignore it with a sharp eye roll, so hard that Leo thought she would sprain something.   
So when she huffed, a strand of red hair waving up in the air before falling back in front of her face again, Leo swallowed and stepped forward, 

“Enough jokes” He warned, and Donnie knew because these people could still be dangerous – psychopaths in fact, and they still had to be cautious,

“Have you seen them?” This time his voice was softer and more pleading, because Leo was tired, and holding onto any thread of hope he could find, and these people were dangling that line right in front of his face like a fish to bait.

“Like I said,” The boy smirked, putting his weight onto one leg, “We seen ‘em”.

The four of them had quickly decided to set off after that, exchanging names and small talk, and Donnie couldn’t help but watch the girl, her name was April, he defiantly recognised her from somewhere, as she tucked her hair behind her hair, reserved and on edge, hand close to her gun that was sitting in the holster on her hip, like a tiger, ready to pounce at any moment, and it impressed him in some weird way. 

As it turned out, in some strange sort of events, Raph had ended up in a rut, and thanks to Casey, they got Raph out of trouble, haul him back to their camp and then miraculously stumble across Mikey too, hauled his sorry ass back and had the two sitting comfortably, sipping lemonades waiting to be rescued. It was a sweet life for some.

Needless to say Leo was pissed, but the type of pissed that was relief, because even though he was glad to hear that the two of them were alive, he was sure to kill them when he got his hands on them. 

It had always been that way – Mikey and Raph, Raph and Mikey, causing a scene, mostly Raph with Mikey tailing behind him like a puppy, and it was always Leo and Donnie saving their asses from situations like this.   
So when the world went to absolute shit, you could imagine the stress it put on Leo. It wasn’t as if school meetings and small encounters with the authorities wasn’t bad enough, he now had a post-apocalyptic world and the dead to keep them out of. Not exactly easy.

But Donnie owed their entire survival on Leonardo. They probably wouldn’t be alive without him. He sure as hell knew he wouldn’t. Guys like him weren’t meant for this world. Kids like Mikey could adjust, guys like Raph were tough and guys like Leo were strong. Guys like Donnie - guys like Donnie were the healthy option at the snack bar for the undead that was usually running away from their problems. Talk about a meal to go.

It didn’t take long to make their way to Casey and April’s camp. It was a fallen, derelict building that was probably some huge, expensive office building that held important meetings and had important people with important jobs that were paying people stupid rich, and now none of it really mattered now. They were either dead or alive, and Donnie wasn’t sure which one was worse.

They had thick walls and security, and when Casey walked past the first door, he earned himself a nod from a guy who was probably some sort of lookout, and it was weird to think that someone like Casey Jones could run a place like this. 

Donnie and Leo were led to a small room that looked like an old conference room, but now the wallpaper was peeling, and the furniture was over turned and pushed aside, leaving the two teens standing in the middle of the room, whilst Casey darted out to fetch the other brothers.

Donnie, Leo and April stood silently. The sun was peeking through the window, creating glare from the smears and dirt, and what looked like, and was probably, dry blood.   
The vines and weeds had grown through the walls and Donnie was going to say something about their surroundings being familiar to a video game he had played back home, but decided to shut his mouth when he realised how dumb it sounded. 

“So,” April cleared her throat in an attempt to break the ice, “You guys from around here?” She asked, and Leo nodded back solemnly before Donnie could speak himself.

Obviously it was thin ice. But they owed to them, because either way, they had Mikey and Raph, and Leo had to be civil whether he liked it or not. Leo had never been like this before – before the world went to shit Leo was pretty open and comfortable with new people and generally a sociable person, practically polar opposites to Donnie. 

But now, now Leo would avoid eye contact with every living human they came across, his hand hovering protectively over the trigger of his gun, as he watched the other person scuttle away, until they were completely out of sight. 

April just nodded in acknowledgment, before something flickered across her face and she spoke up,

“Have I seen you before?” She said, turning to Donnie who just stood lamely,

“I, uh, I’m not sure” he shrugged.

Then, after what felt like a lifetime there was a click of a door, Casey entering first, then finally, Raph and Mikey in tail, looking rather sheepish.  
Donnie and Leo seemed to have the same idea in mind, taking two big strides over to them, and before they could react, engulfing them each in a hug.

“You ass” Leo finally said when he pulled away from Mikey, “you pair of stupid asses”

“Ha,” Casey barked out from behind them, “you got that right” he scoffed, 

“real pair of asses - you’re lucky I was there to save them” he said proudly and Raph just rolled his eyes,

“Yeah, yeah whatever” he said bitterly, wriggling his arm out of Donnie’s vice like grip around it, rather irritated.

As Leo was dishing out his dose of gratitude to the strangers that had saved their brothers, Donnie found himself looking around the building they were stood in. He noticed the few windows that had steel bars over them, wonkily applied probably in a frenzy, the pile of furniture against one door with a few faded bloody handprints from what must have been a long time ago.

It wasn’t often Donnie let himself dwell on the past but he couldn’t help but think about his building, this very room he was stood in.  
It made him think about their subway station; what was supposed to be home, and how small and insignificant it seemed to a building this colossal. A building this safe.

Donnie wasn’t stupid; safety was in numbers, whether it were for recourses, for intellect, for swarms or even for expendables, the bigger was always better. And just through the door that Casey was leant beside chatting away to April, he could see through a corridor and into another room where even more people sat round a table comfortably, kitted out in some sort of makeshift gear, welding a variety of weapons, probably about to make a supply run – and it made Donnie’s backpack and handgun seem kind of pathetic in comparison.

The four of them weren’t meant to survive long. Especially if certain ones kept wondering off, getting into trouble.  
As much as it were a risk, they needed a group. They needed something better, they had to, or they could lose everything. And there was something rather trusting about these guys, and sure, maybe it was because they had saved Mikey and Raph – but there was the normality they had, the casual banter from Casey, and although he was a pain in the ass, it was so human to Donnie.

And yeah, maybe he like April a little. So sue him for being a teenage boy in the middle of an apocalypse. What are you gonna do?

But as he turned to Leo who was gladly taking two glasses of lemonade, passing one to Donnie with a quick smile as he turned back to talk to April, he wondered how he would take it; his brother who had his guard up almost constantly, his brother who possibly couldn’t bear any heartbreak but would have to learn how to, his brother who just wanted to be okay – how he would feel about picking up and staying here – maybe not even ever going back to the station.

Maybe Donnie wanted to stay here. Maybe he didn’t want to leave. Maybe that’s what he’d do.

“I mean if it’s no problem” he hears Leo speak beside him to the girl, grounding him back to reality and he gives him a quizzical look and Leo take a sip of his drink, swallowing it down thickly,

“There’s a swarm outside, gonna stay the night just in case” he nods, looking slightly uncomfortable,

“At least I won’t have to endure Raph’s gross feet tonight, I’m not sharing with him tonight if we’re having a mini holiday here” Mikey pipes up, and for once, Leo laughs a warm laugh from somewhere in his chest, watching as Raph just sends a light punch to his arm.

And maybe this will work out. Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> decided that literally after over a year to come back to this lol hi


End file.
